Cruel Words
by ellie2498
Summary: "Noah?" he softly called into the night, but the darkness swallowed the tiny noise. Cody shook with fear, and he was barely able to will himself to continue forward.


**I haven't posted anything in a while, so to make up for lost time, I'm going to post something every day this weekend! This is my first try at angst, or at least something that sort of resembles angst... Please let me know how I did!**

* * *

Cody was awakened by the sound of thunder. He always grew nervous at the booming noise, and when coupled with lightning, it was a deadly combination. He reached out next to him, looking for the comfort of his boyfriend, but only found a handful of sheets. _He's probably in the bathroom then. No need to worry._ Cody waited and waited, but he never showed. Listening very intently, the only sounds that could be heard were from the storm outside. Slowly, he got to his feet.

"Noah?" he softly called into the night, but the darkness swallowed the tiny noise. Cody shook with fear, and he was barely able to will himself to continue forward.

He hesitantly checked the bathroom, but it was vacant. Confused, he called "Noah?" again, this time a little louder, but still no response.

He dared to venture into the dark hallway of the apartment they shared. A loud clap of thunder rang out, making Cody jump. He moved a little faster into the living room. All seemed calm in the dark, but it was the dark that Cody was afraid of. Stumbling once over the coffee table, he found the lightswitch on the wall and flipped it on. A bright light flooded the room, and he had to squint until his eyes adjusted. Looking over the scene in front of him, there was no sign of the scrawny bookworm, and it was slowly dawned on Cody as to why. The memory of the previous night came back to him, piece by small piece. It was like a puzzle he had to put back together again. Suddenly, thousands of pieces, little clips of memories, rushed back to him, overwhelming him and almost knocking him over. He had to sit down on the floor to avoid falling and hurting himself, because his mind was swaying back and forth. Cody felt as if he was on a wooden boat, being tossed around on rough water. His vision kept growing blurrier and blurrier, until he couldn't even make out his own hand in front of his face. Before he had the chance to stop it, tears gushed down his cheeks, like two depressing waterfalls.

"Oh Noah!" he cried into the night. "Why did you have to leave me?!"

Loud, hacking sobs escaped Cody's lips as he remembered Noah slamming the door behind him as he left, knocking a picture off the wall. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that Noah may have left for good, and he could possibly never set foot through that doorway again. That thought broke him even more.

He gazed across the room. Paint was splattered everywhere. The very paint that started it all.

* * *

_"Hey Noah, what color do you think goes best with red?" Cody asked with a paintbrush in his hand. Noah never understood artists, or why Cody wanted to be one. Painting seemed pointless to him. Just another waste of time._

_"Why won't you ever grow up?" Noah asked, but not playfully like usual. His tone had a sharp, angry edge to it._

_"I am a grown-up," Cody quietly replied._

_"No, you're not. No matter how much you 'pretend' to act like a responsible adult, you're still just a stupid little kid."_

_Cody was crushed by his cruel words. Tears formed in his teal eyes._

_"See what I mean? You're crying because I gave you one measly insult."_

_"It's not the insult that hurt. It's the fact that you would say that to me," Cody shot back, growing braver as he went along._

_"So let me get this straight- just because we're in a relationship means that I can't say anything bad about you?"_

_Cody was appalled that Noah was acting this way. Even though he normally seems cynical and mean, he rarely is when Cody's around. This filled Cody with rage. Not just at this sudden outburst, but all of them. Every time Noah made a rude remark, he just tried to clear it from his mind, and force a smile when Noah said "I'm sorry" an hour later. He always blamed it on him having a bad day, and that it was never actually directed at Cody. Even though every time Cody reassured that it was okay, he hardly ever convinced himself. But he was always too scared to speak up. He was afraid he was going to lose him. 'Loophole,' Cody thought. Because he couldn't think of the right words to throw at Noah, he used something else- the container full of red paint._

_It struck Noah across the face. He looked up from his book, his nose dripping and his cheeks streaked with red. Cody immediately felt bad. He let his anger get to him._

_"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" He couldn't keep from laughing though, because Noah looked ridiculous with the paint on him._

_"You're obviously not sorry, or you wouldn't be laughing."_

_"No, really! Here," Cody said, stepping towards him to clean the paint off._

_"You know Cody, I can't do this anymore! Being with you is like baby-sitting my little cousins- work I'm being forced to do!" He got up to start gathering his things._

_Desperately, Cody followed Noah around, saying every apology he could think of. Noah ignored him until he had opened the door to leave. He stopped, turned around, and stared at Cody, not wanting to leave, but believing that this was the best decision. Cody hoped that this was the moment when Noah said "Gotcha!" and came back inside._

_"Cody, why don't you just... go to bed, and forget everything."_

_SLAM!_

_Then, he was gone. Heartbroken, Cody stared at the door, waiting for him to come back. When he realized he wasn't, he obediently got ready for bed, trying as best he could to erase the previous events out of his mind._

* * *

"This is all my fault!" Cody moaned, as the tears flowed down his face. He hugged his knees up to his chest and sat with his back against the wall. "Noah, I'm sorry! Please come back! I never meant to laugh at you! Oh god, why did I do that? I swear, I'll grow up!"

He sat there, bawling and babbling like a crazy person, until exhaustion got the better of him. He fell into a deep sleep, the tear streaks still evident on his pale face.

* * *

Noah stood outside, his hands dug deep in the pockets of his raincoat. He was leaning against a streetlamp, still deciding whether he should go inside and apologize to Cody or not. In the distance, a flash of lightning illuminated the sky, shortly followed by the deep rumbling sound of thunder. He got a mental image of Cody huddling in the corner all alone, covering his ears, frightened by the thunderstorm. That was what made Noah escape the rapidly falling rain and go inside.

After taking the elevator to the eighth floor, he saw light coming out from under their apartment door. He listened, but there wasn't the faint sound of the television coming through the door. Not wanting to knock and possibly wake him up, he tried the door handle. It was unlocked, not to his surprise. Cody never remembered important things, such as locking the front door. Quietly shutting the door behind him, he saw Cody sleeping on the floor under the lightswitch. He also saw the paint everywhere (vaguely thinking that it looked like blood), and Cody's easel still in the same place. Noah took off his shoes and his soaked raincoat, then crossed the room, scooped the smaller boy in his arms, turned the light off, and carefully laid him in bed. Cody smiled at something in his sleep. Noah stood there, in the dark, awkwardly listening to the sound of Cody's steady breathing, and trying to decide what to do at this point. Every time the lightning appeared, he got a glimpse of his sleeping figure, and his heart swelled with love.

Eventually, he changed out of his wet clothes and into warm pajamas, and crawled into bed next to his boyfriend. After a couple of minutes, Cody rolled over and wrapped his arms around him.

"I love you, and I'm sorry," Noah whispered, noting the faint evidence that Cody had been crying.

"I know," Cody whispered back.

* * *

**Please let me know what you think! Either PM me or review... whichever works.**


End file.
